Jo lives in a small town in southern Japan. She lives with her two children and Japanese husband and is learning more everyday about the world of Japanese agriculture and culture.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Flying Carp

I've just been searching my previous blog entries to see what I wrote about flying carp last year, but can't seem to find anything.... I guess I'd better introduce them to you again, just in case I really didn't do it last year!

May 5th is "Children's Day" and as part of the celebrations people who have boys have been flying carp in their backyards since about the middle of April. The carp symbolise strength due to their ability to swim upstream and are therefore put up to give your boys good health and strength for the following year. The standard way of displaying them are to have a number of different sized ones on a large pole, however some towns have big events around this time, including thousands in one area or VERY big ones. Sorry Dad - the big ones are not near us, but there should still be some small ones flying when you arrive!We have some, but they are in boxes in the garage... we took the poles down a year or so ago as they were starting to rot... nothing like a big pole falling on your house!